The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir, has announced that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Mujahideen (holy fighters) are "now" on the outskirts of Abu-Kershola in South Kordofan's northeast and vowed to annihilate rebels of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).

Al-Bashir, who was addressing the graduation ceremony of the 48th batch of the Change Generation Program sponsored by the Islamic Daawa Organisation yesterday, pledged to decisively defeat SRF rebels whom he claimed to have killed innocent and defenseless people labeling such crimes as "terrorism" and contrary to all norms and conventions.

The SRF responded with a statement on Monday dismissing Bashir's assertions and claimed to have repulsed SAF's three-pronged attack.

The spokesperson of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Gibreel Adam Bilal, said they repelled the attack and inflected heavy losses on the Sudanese troops.

A source told Sudan Tribune that Sudan's Popular Defense Forces (PDF) incurred heavy losses at the outskirts of Abu-Kershola.

Observers in Khartoum have questioned why SAF has been unable to re-capture the district which fell into rebel hands in late April. Around the same time, SRF rebels swept through the city of Um Rawaba in North Kordofan, before withdrawing later on the same day.

Earlier this month, officials in Khartoum said that they have Abu-Kershola completely surrounded and suggested that they will soon enter it.

The Sudanese leader also spoke of an international plot targeting Sudan and Iran and stressed Sudan's ability to thwart it.

"Tribulations and hostile schemes against Sudan will continue. They will not leave us as long as we adhere to Islam and Jihad", stressing that the battles in Gaza and Sudan are against a common enemy.

Al-Bashir called upon the Sudanese people to fight racism and regional allegiances.